In this week’s newsletter: The first week of school was off to a rocky start in some districts as heat led to cancellations and early dismissals. Declining enrollment gets The New Yorker and ProPublica treatment. An education reporter and former teacher calls for math to have its “Sold a Story” moment. The New York Times has named a new education editor. And a reporter captures an adorable back-to-school photo.
BACK-TO-SCHOOL HEAT
The big story of the week
The big education story of the week is the hot weather that has swept the Midwest and East Coast, canceling some classes and making others almost unbearable for students and teachers alike.
Classes were canceled in Milwaukee, Baltimore, and Waterbury, Conn., as the new school year got underway (CBS News, Spectrum, NBC Connecticut). Schools in Detroit and the surrounding area moved to half-days or early dismissals (WXYZ Detroit, AP). But in Chicago, despite an excessive heat warning, students went to the first day of class as usual (Chalkbeat Chicago).
More than 10,000 schools across the country lack air conditioning — an increasingly daunting problem as temperatures rise and kids are still catching up after missing so much school during the pandemic (Marketplace). Fixing the problem will not be cheap (Washington Post).
Weather-related school closings are often spot news items in local coverage, but perhaps they deserve deeper coverage going forward. Last year, in a column for The Grade, Anya Kamenetz made the case for education reporters to take on climate reporting, too.
Other big education stories of the week include the U.S. Supreme Court decision to block President Biden’s new student loan repayment plan, newly released test scores in some states with both middling and optimistic results, and the ongoing debate about whether schools should allow kids to use cell phones. Check out @thegrade_ for daily headlines!
THE DEATH OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL
The best education journalism of the week
The best education journalism of the week is The Death of School 10: How declining enrollment is threatening the future of American public education by ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis. The piece also appeared in The New Yorker.
The Grade has covered this topic a lot over the past few months (here, here, and here), but MacGillis gets a lot of room to roam — nearly 4,600 words — and uses it wisely, offering readers both personal stories and a look at the larger dilemma of families simply abandoning public schools. He covers the wrenching closure of a beloved public school in Rochester, N.Y., one of 11 being shuttered or repurposed last spring as the city confronts parents’ changing post-pandemic attitudes and a growing taste for charters, private schools, and homeschooling.
MacGillis smartly focuses on an immigrant family concerned for their kids even as the district reassures them that everything will be OK. It isn’t, of course.
It’s rare that education gets such a forum, and one of the satisfactions of this piece, reported over months, is the perspective it affords — and the details that tell a story: MacGillis notes that during one of his reporting trips, he stayed in a swank hotel built upon a shuttered schoolhouse. And he stuck around Rochester long enough to report that the superintendent, who at the outset was urging calm, eventually took a job in the suburbs. His replacement is the city’s seventh superintendent in eight years. Who’s abandoning whom?
Other education stories we liked this week: How Rhode Island is fighting chronic absenteeism (Chalkbeat), a deep dive into why Black students are still disciplined at higher rates (AP), how busing and school desegregation shaped Kamala Harris’s views of race (Washington Post), one rural district’s fight to keep students safe (San Diego Union Tribune), and errors landing autistic students at an unregulated boarding school (Boston Globe).
IT’S TIME FOR MATH’S ‘SOLD A STORY’ MOMENT
Our latest columns and commentary
In this week’s new column, Colin Hogan of the New Bedford Light argues that math has yet to have its “‘Sold a Story’ moment” as reading did — but that the subject is certainly ripe for it.
A one-time high school math teacher in Mississippi and New York City, Hogan notes that between a third and half of teachers report they had one semester or less learning the math concepts they now impart to the next generation.
“I became a reporter to help people understand what’s happening in the classroom,” he writes, “but math coverage too often fails to help readers understand why policy interventions are necessary or how they might work.”
Hogan suggests that education reporters do a few simple things, including better explaining concepts and classroom practices to readers, pushing to understand what research says, and, of course, getting into classrooms — not just for scenes “but to observe what teachers and students are thinking and doing.”
Above: The first day back at school this week for Chicago high schooler Arunima Chaudhary was spent prepping stories about the DNC, which she covered for her school newspaper. “Being able to talk to these people showed me that everyone has a story that should be shared,” she told the Sun-Times.
PEOPLE, JOBS, & EVENTS
Who’s going where and what’s happening
📰 Career moves: Sarah Garland is officially the education editor for the New York Times after more than two years leading education coverage on the Metro desk. New York City education reporter Troy Closson will fill in for Sarah Mervosh on the national K-12 beat while Mervosh is on parental leave. And Grade contributorJustin Murphy is leaving his post reporting on education at the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York, to join the organization Our Local History as a research and communications coordinator. Congrats to all!
📰 Segments & appearances: Alec MacGillis (see “best education journalism of the week” above) was interviewed by NPR for his reporting on declining enrollment. WBUR’s “Here and Now” ran a segment featuring Chalkbeat Tennessee reporter Marta Aldrich on whether teachers and staff are carrying guns in Tennessee schools now that they can (hint: most aren’t).
📰 Events: The NLGJA National Convention is happening next week, and EWA will have a session on interviewing LGBTQ+ young people. In November, Boston education journalist Linda Wertheimer will participate in a panel on teaching about religion and inclusiveness for religious minorities at the National Council for the Social Studies convention. In case you missed it, you can catch a replay of the Aug. 21 ProPublica event on the political battle over school vouchers, featuring Alec MacGillis, Jeremy Schwartz, and others. And the Houston Chronicle education team held a virtual event yesterday about the state of K-12 education in Houston.
📰 Job openings: The Dallas Morning News is hiring an Education Lab reporter to be part of their five-person team. The Seattle Times is also looking for an Education Lab reporter to focus on early childhood and elementary education. The 74 is hiring a senior editor for early learning and COVID recovery coverage. The Detroit Free Press is hiring a childcare and early childhood education fellow. Berkeleyside is looking for a reporter to cover “education and the challenges and triumphs of local youth.” New Hampshire Public Radio is hiring a youth and education reporter. Public Source is seeking a higher education reporter in Pittsburgh.
📰 Correction: Last week, we noted that Lauren Booker is the newest member of the Boston Globe’s Great Divide team. While she has joined the team as a digital editor, she is still also the digital editor for the Money, Power, Inequality team.
THE KICKER
The most adorable back-to-school photo goes to Chalkbeat Chicago Bureau Chief Becky Vevea: “Big bro showing little bro the ropes.”
That’s all, folks. Thanks for reading!
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By Alexander Russo with additional writing from Colleen Connolly.
